Sports

Seven records tumbled on the second day of the Junior National Athletic Championships now in progress at the Sugathadasa Stadium. This brings the tally to nine records in the three day competition which will come to an end today evening.

Of the seven records that were established yesterday five were in the track events and two in the field events. It was the outstation athletes that dominated the record breaking feats with seven coming from them. On the opening day the two record breaking feats were in the Girls under 14 High Jump with L.H. Sajani Madushika making a leap of 1.63 meters bettering the record of 1.51 meters and the Boys under 18 Long Jump with Sajith Nadeeshan making 7.06 meters to better the record of 6.99.

The highlight of the record breakers was the performance of Menaka Nilmini Kalupahana of Sumana Balika MV Ratnapura . The Ratnapura lass established two of the seven records that were set yesterday. She set new records in the 100mts hurdles and the 400mts in the Girls under 20 categories. Kalupahana bettered her own record of 15.65 which she jointly held with school mate B.G.L. Maduwanthi with a timing of 15.43 seconds in the 100mts hurdles.

Devini Madurapperuma of Museaus College eclipsed a 26 year old record in the Girls under 18 Shot Putt when she hurled a throw of 10.92 to better the record of 10.11 set by Deepika Rodrigo of Anuradhapura MV in 1986. Deshini Bandara of De Mazenod College Kandana did a timing of 13.94 seconds in the Girls under 14 80mts hurdles to better the record of 14.00 seconds set by Sachintha Perera of Bishops College in 2003.

Trinity College Kandy’s Dilum Perera set a new record of 13.87 in the Boys under 12 100mts event while Keith de Mel of St Joseph’s Maradana sprinted his way to return a best timing of 22.80 seconds in the Boys under 16 200mts to better the record of 23.18 seconds set last year by Richmondite A.D.M. Silva. The last record of the second days proceedings came in the Girls under 20 Triple Jump event where another girl from the gem city Ishali Chandrasekera of Ferguson High School Ratnapura set a new record of 12.09 bettering the record of 11.75mts set by Ruwani Rubasinghe of St Mary’s Convent Matara two years ago.